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OpenMarket: Labor and Employment

Labor unions continue to deny the First Amendment rights of public employees despite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which ruled one year ago that non-union workers cannot be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment. Many public employees that want to drop their membership have found it can be exceedingly difficult to do so.

It has been nearly one year since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the First Amendment rights of public employees, but many members are still having difficulties exercising these new rights. In the landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision, public employees who are not members of a union can no longer be forced to pay agency fees, better known as forced union dues, as a condition of employment.

Overtime regulation has been a hot topic since the Obama administration proposed and finalized a rule that radically overhauled such requirements. Before this rule, which raised the salary threshold for overtime eligible employees from $23,660 to $47,892, took effect it was struck down by a federal district court in 2017.

Today, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a draft notice indicating that it will be withdrawing a 2016 proposed rule that would have required trains to have at least two crewmembers onboard at all times during operation.

Determining the proper legal worker classification for an individual has become an arduous task. A major reason for the difficulty is a patchwork of federal and state laws that define the term employee and therefore independent contractor differently. More than ten different tests are applied among federal agencies and courts for defining the term employee.

Democrats in Congress are pushing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act H.R. 2474, which seeks to strip workers of long-held protections and bolster the coercive power of labor unions. On May 8th, the House Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing to discuss this union wish list bill.

Since 2000, state governments have diverted $1.4 billion from homecare providers and handed it to labor unions, according to the Freedom Foundation. For over a decade, states automatically deducted union dues payments from Medicaid payments intended for homecare providers who care for the elderly or disabled. Worse, most homecare providers care for family members on Medicaid. No one should be forced to fund a union when simply caring for a loved one.

The Protecting Workers’ Right to Organize (PRO) Act puts the interests of labor unions over workers. Each provision of the bill either grants unions greater coercive powers, restricts worker choice, or increases the likelihood of industrial strife.

Over the weekend, the eleven-day strike by more than 30,000 Stop & Shop employees ended. The grocery chain announced that it “has reached fair new tentative agreements with UFCW Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445 and 1459, which represent our 31,000 associates in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.”